The chancellor, Philip Hammond, has been true to his word and his government has followed through on his promise. In 2011 he said the railway was a “rich man’s toy”. The rail industry is doing its level best to deliver on that pledge with Tuesday’s announcement that rail fares will go up by an average of 3.4% in January, the highest increase in five years. Ticket prices have already risen by 27% since 2010, twice the rate of wages.

Contrast this with fuel duty, which has been frozen for seven years at a cost of £46bn. Or air passenger duty in aviation – untouched for five years. Yet this government has disproportionately penalised rail passengers year after year while linking fare increases to the more punitive retail price index (RPI) rather than the lower consumer price index (CPI). Why?

'The worst aspect of privatisation': readers on rail fare increases

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The simple truth is that the government won’t admit – indeed it cannot admit – that the rail system it created and so steadfastly defended for so many years is now broken beyond repair. Rail privatisation has wasted enormous sums of money. Yet the ongoing defence of failure can become dangerously misleading and potentially dishonest. Rail fares are the apotheosis of this mistrust.

To compound matters the transport secretary, Chris Grayling, came to parliament last week to announce a strategic vision for rail. His new vision was actually a huge bailout for Stagecoach on the East Coast mainline which could cost taxpayers billions of pounds.

The share price of Stagecoach and other train operators such as Go Ahead and First Group rose significantly last week following the news that the government will guarantee its profits. You would have thought the rail companies might have shown a bit of good grace and decency over the fares increase given the taxpayer bailout? Not a bit of it.

Public faith in the railway seems to matter little to the Rail Delivery Group (RDG), the combination of Network Rail and the passenger and freight operation companies that run the network. For example, the group boasts that £925m of private investment was made in rail last year. In fact, much of this is finance for new trains. Finance is not investment. This is but one subjective claim among many. It’s hard to escape the conclusion that the RDG is not only misleading passengers but exploiting them over the fare increases.

The next Labour government will cap regulated fair rises at the CPI, using the money saved through bringing rail franchises back into public ownership, to ensure fares rise no higher than inflation. This policy would save the average season ticket holder more than £500 over the course of this parliament compared with RPI.

Train fares: UK rail passengers face biggest rise for five years

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Labour’s policy of public ownership of rail will unite track and trains at the highest level of the railway under a united, public company. This organisation will take over train contracts as they expire and include the rail infrastructure work currently done by Network Rail.

These plans will, for the first time in 20 years, give the railway a guiding mind which can take a strategic and operational view of the whole network. This contrasts with the current structure where decision-making is totally uncoordinated.

Today’s fare rise announcement is yet another betrayal of rail passengers by the government and train companies. Only Labour has the ambition and courage to deliver the railway the public deserves.